Most radio stations run contests for listeners to win concert tickets and electronics. Edmonton radio station 100.3FM The Bear is “giving away a wife.”
Partnering with a mail order bride company called A Volga Girl, The Bear is appealing to listeners “interested in potential holy matrimony with a hot foreign chick.” They’re calling the contest “Win A Wife” and have received entries from some men who are seeking genuine companionship, but also others who desire little more than someone to be their sexual partner and maid.
Offended and outraged, Edmonton listener Elicia Elliott has started a petition on Change.org to get this contest cancelled. Sign Elicia’s petition to tell 100.3FM that women are not commodities to be won or given away and that the contest should be cancelled immediately.
Elicia’s is not the only voice speaking out against 100.3FM’s contest. Alberta’s immigration minister, Thomas Lukaszuk, has pulled his ministry’s ads from the station because of it. He said, “In some parts of the world where women make themselves available to be Internet brides or through international dating agencies … they very seldom have that choice. They are either coerced into that position by despairing economic circumstances or they are coaxed into it by illegal elements.”
The Change.org community has stopped other companies from perpetuating damaging ideas about women’s intelligence and value, with a key victory last week against the “I’m too pretty to do homework” T-shirt sold by American retail giant, JC Penney. Let’s keep the momentum going and tell The Bear that their contest degrades and endangers women by reducing them to contest prizes.
Sign Elicia’s petition to tell 100.3FM The Bear to cancel their “Win A Wife” contest now:
Thanks for being a change-maker,
– Shelby and the Change.org team
Related articles
- Radio station’s win-a-Russian-bride contest panned (cbc.ca)
- ‘Win a wife’ radio promo draws anger (upi.com)
- Radio Station To Give Away Russian Bride As Prize (khmx.radio.com)
- Alberta radio station’s ‘win a wife’ contest angers MLA (thestar.com)
- Alta. immigration minister says ‘Win A Wife’ contest in poor taste. Do you agree? (calgaryherald.com)
- Canadian Radio Station Holds ‘Win A Wife’ Contest (huffingtonpost.com)
- Alberta Immigration Minister pulls radio ads over ‘Win a Wife’ contest (news.nationalpost.com)
- Alta. immigration minister says ‘Win A Wife’ contest in poor taste (calgaryherald.com)
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